MOMS IN THE C-SUITE
BY HELEN BOND
WITH A LITTLE HELP…
Shelly Sun on children, marriage, and business
O
n a recent vacation in New Zealand, Shelly Sun, co-founder and
CEO of BrightStar Care, left
her computer behind for more than three
weeks of family time. Within 24 hours of
returning home, she’d repacked and was
back in the air, this time for business.
Such is life for Sun, co-founder of one
of the nation’s fastest-growing womanowned companies, and mother to twin
10-year-old boys. With a job that demands
60 percent of her time for travel, Sun’s
version of work/life balance begins with
carving out quality time for her children,
marriage, and business, with the “balance
leaning in favor of the children, marriage,
and family unit,” says Sun, who strives to
make every moment matter.
“On a daily basis, it doesn’t always
work, but I think that was a permission I
had to give myself. As women, we just run
ourselves ragged to try to be Superwoman
in every single aspect of our lives. I think it
is impossible as an expectation,” she says.
“So certainly a fulfillment of an unrealistic
expectation is that, over a month, if I can
be an exceptional mother, an exceptional
wife, and an exceptional business owner,
then I have done well.”
Sun has been navigating the challenges
of motherhood and work since the birth
of her two boys and the Gurnee, Ill.-based
franchise brand she founded with her husband JD Sun. She was pregnant and on
doctor-ordered bed rest when she filed the
legal paperwork and wrote the operations
manual to franchise BrightStar Care in
January 2005—the same month her twins
were born. Sun spent 10 years as a CPA
in the corporate world before she and her
husband launched the family business in
2002, driven by their struggle to find suitable care for her husband’s grandmother,
now deceased.
Just over a decade later, BrightStar’s
national private duty home care and medical staffing franchise exceeds $250 million
in system-wide sales, with more than 260
locations in the U.S. and Canada. BrightStar now offers a full continuum of care-
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giving in the home, including adult, elder,
and childcare, along with babysitter and
nanny services.
Planning with purpose
Sun’s constant quest to plan with a clear
sense of purpose guides every decision she
makes. Whether plotting expansion, help-
ing her franchisees with strategic business
planning, or booking the family’s future
adventures, Sun looks at the big picture—
even when it comes to raising her children.
When her travel schedule began to create
stress for the boys in different ways—one
son wanted advance notice of his mother’s
departure, while his brother preferred not
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